[00:00] So in March this year, Ethereum Foundation board published the EF mandate.
[00:15] So that was a document guiding Ethereum Foundation members to act on Ethereum values such as crops.
[00:27] Crops means censorship resistance, open source privacy and security.
[00:37] So in the technical and social pillars in our activities we follow those guidance.
[00:44] So why did you release the document at this time?
[00:49] So I was actually the one who suggested creating the mandate.
[00:59] It was the end of last year, till the target first.
[01:05] And it may look strange because normally a document like this is created when an organization is about to start.
[01:17] And that can be used later.
[01:20] But there were a few reasons.
[01:24] First, as the ecosystem matures and grows, we see the growth in the number of people and in size.
[01:32] But the most important part cannot stay implicit.
[01:39] Especially when we have more people at the beginning.
[01:46] So you can see all the technical details of Ethereum.
[02:01] You can read every specification, but it's harder to see the why.
[02:11] You can see the decisions that are made, but it's harder to see why the decision is being made.
[02:20] For example, why can't Ethereum transactions be fostered and other things?
[02:33] And it is not because we cannot really make it faster.
[02:38] It is because every choice has to be weighed against what it costs in things like crops, like you said.
[02:49] Censorship resistance, security, privacy, openness.
[02:55] And without explaining the why, that choice can look like a weakness.
[03:01] So we thought that that was explained.
[03:06] Second, looking around the environment, the world we are in, there are increasingly more systems that we are using every day, but we cannot re-inspect on our own.
[03:25] Or we can sometimes leave.
[03:29] And also political conflict is intensifying, and then a lot of things are mediated by AI.
[03:36] So in an environment like this, that form of Ethereum that was made at the beginning, when the white paper was released, is increasingly becoming more important.
[03:51] And then the third part is culture.
[03:56] Culture is evolving and changing every day. Someone is meant to change every day.
[04:02] But there are parts of Ethereum culture, I believe, that we lose that as Ethereum.
[04:19] The culture, that part of culture, has been understood more informally, or about it, but we don't really make it very, very explicit.
[04:39] And I thought it was time to make it visible.
[04:43] So those are some of the strong reasons.
[04:51] Okay, and it has passed about six months after the release of the document.
[05:03] What are the impacts you see by that document?
[05:08] Yeah, it's been great.
[05:13] Not greater than I expected, but it is actually happening quicker than I expected.
[05:20] First of all, this document was mainly for internal people.
[05:28] And then we also said this is also a manifesto to the world, too, so that people can understand where we stand, who we are, and then what we don't.
[05:38] We're not going to change forever, as long as we exist.
[05:47] And so, by making that explicit, internally, every team is thinking harder about how to interpret that into their daily action.
[05:59] So now people are using crops as we decide what kind of thing EF should support, and then what type of people we need.
[06:14] So that is becoming more clear, and then that is definitely changing the way we think and act.
[06:22] And also, this is not just internally, but also in the ecosystem, people understand that's the focus.
[06:34] And naturally, different groups and teams started to actually find their own role in the missing pieces.
[06:47] It was always missing pieces, but it became more clear, so some groups stepped up to organize their own teams and organization.
[07:00] And also, I want to mention, because we're in Tokyo here, the Ethereum Japan community, they translated the whole 38 pages into Japanese,
[07:17] which might sound not hard with AI now, with those people who don't really speak Japanese,
[07:24] but we know how English to Japanese translation, it's almost still not easy with AI.
[07:32] That's where I always actually compare that with how the computer was competing,
[07:43] so humans were competing against computers to play a goal game.
[07:49] The goal was the last game against humans.
[07:57] But anyway, so it's very hard, and then the community made this beautiful translation,
[08:08] and then it's out there now published on their website, Ethereum Japan's website now, if you want to check it out.
[08:18] And that's actually inspiring others, including the Ethereum.org team inside EF to see that impact.
[08:29] Yeah, that's a really beautiful global activity, and we also see new organizations and players coming up to the scene.
[08:54] How do you see those situations, and is there any changes in the Ethereum Foundation role?
[09:01] Yeah, so I think people have heard a lot of music and different organizations started, launched, and popped up in the last few months.
[09:14] Some of them we had expected, some of them were not expected,
[09:24] but I think overall this is exactly how we see the vision of the Infinite God,
[09:34] and how we are a steward, and then other people should see themselves as everyone.
[09:46] It's no one that's, and then that's why it's everyone's, and so that's actually what needs to happen.
[09:55] When we look at the internet history, that's actually how all their earliest organizations like EF,
[10:06] everyone sees themselves as a steward, not really trying to be that dominant power.
[10:15] So that's very important. But with that, I think it's something to survey at the same time.
[10:25] We as the Ethereum Foundation, our role is to really preserve the culture, the important part of the culture of Ethereum.
[10:36] Which means we are going to be vocal about what is, it's not just about the understand,
[10:56] we see ourselves as steward, and then we hope others also believe that too.
[11:06] So we stated in a mandate that we would like to work with groups that, as allies,
[11:14] that share the foundational principles together with us.
[11:20] So it may not be just in the Ethereum ecosystem, but it could be other open source communities,
[11:30] or groups that care about privacy. So that's by us looking at those different organizations
[11:41] beyond the boundaries of the Ethereum community.
[11:46] So now let's shift the gear a little bit for the building, because we are a global hackathon.
[12:06] What kind of opportunities do you see for builders institutions?
[12:17] Yeah, I think there are a lot of opportunities actually.
[12:21] Often we hear, oh, developers are moving to AI now, and then it's harder for developers to stay in the spaces,
[12:32] sometimes we secure this. But I think it's actually a lot of growing opportunities.
[12:40] What we care, maybe I should impersonation, is there a lot of ways to make these clubs more accessible.
[12:50] We used to feel like crops, if they're a strong trade-off, to protect crops we have to give up on something.
[13:04] So that's where the opportunities are. Can we really preserve privacy without giving up on compliance,
[13:16] or without giving up on UX? And then also for institutions, stablecoin is a huge thing,
[13:25] but then when we think about privacy and stablecoins, what is the concentration,
[13:34] the challenges coming from concentration is out there. Stablecoin is the biggest application in Ethereum now,
[13:47] which is great, but also USD is stablecoin is dominant, but also we think about that.
[14:05] So there are a lot of opportunities with that, obviously in the previous discussion they were talking about AI too,
[14:30] so it's not just how AI can help.
[14:48] Do you think Ethereum can help AI?
[14:52] Like I said, there are a lot of things that we can't really, right now AIs are still growing,
[15:06] and growing very, very quickly, but without asking, people start to ask questions,
[15:14] but we don't really see the answers, and I think Ethereum is one of the best tools to provide alternatives to the options that we have.
[15:34] We feel like we have to surrender now to use AI now. That's not going to be sustainable.
[15:47] How do you share Ethereum's values to the people?
[16:08] Yeah, so when we say values, people just tend to think that's actually very factory,
[16:19] but it's actually the property that we just mentioned today, such as clubs.
[16:30] That is hugely related to connected to our lives.
[16:35] So if we talk about, maybe first not about Ethereum,
[16:40] but it's actually what kind of thing Ethereum can provide, the properties Ethereum can provide,
[16:46] how does your life change if we have better security, if we have better privacy,
[16:53] and if you talk about that more, people can connect that technology, and they're thinking better.
[17:03] But also, sometimes, without me controlling, trying to control my own business,
[17:16] I think sometimes people just receive it very well.
[17:20] For example, actually a few days ago, I saw someone in my talk in 2022,
[17:33] and he was a high schooler, fascinated with Ethereum, but I got an idea.
[17:44] Then he started to explore what Ethereum can do, and then he managed to,
[17:54] and also actually now I heard that he's so patient and also supporting each other's spirit,
[18:31] and that he's not the only person.
[18:35] I also recently met another teenager in the Ethereum ecosystem who read the white paper.
[18:43] He actually didn't connect with anyone online for a long time,
[18:49] but he really loved the original vision of Ethereum.
[18:55] He came online, someone connected to people, and then he read the Ethereum Foundation one day.
[19:05] For him, he said, he thought this was very obvious.
[19:09] He didn't really understand why he needed to release this now.
[19:13] So, if you look at that, there's a lot of hope there, I thought.
[19:31] Thank you so much, it looks like the time is up.
[19:45] Thanks for having us.
[19:47] Thank you.
[19:48] Oh, do you want to mention DevCon?
[19:51] Oh yes, we are having DevCon in Mumbai in November 3 to 6.
[19:59] So, that's the largest Ethereum going.
[20:03] So, please come to see what Ethereum ecosystem looks like.
[20:09] And what we talked about.
[20:18] Thanks so much.